Summative Project Report

General feedback from peers: 

• Well presented and neatly composed; clear, methodical work flow
• Variety in media, playful, expressive and minimal
• More exploration of how color can represent different expressions? 
• "The use of animals was a really cool concept and I'd love to see more of it!"
• The practical work shows you always kept the outcome in mind, would like to have seen more diversity in emotions (have a collection of it) 
• "Practice reflects a visual style you clearly enjoy working"

Thoughts:

• Just to add to the comment made about showing more diversity in emotion, I agree that I didn't work on any other emotions or feelings. But I think that this focused route allowed me to delve into the subject in more depth rather than being stretched to wide apart and too thin. 

• I am generally happy with the work I've produced for this module. I wouldn't say I am super proud of it, however I am satisfied. I would say, I could have gone more ambitious? Adding to the suggestion, I would like to expand on the practical side of this module into 603, where I continue to explore this concept of visual language and perhaps make a whole series. 

Digital media tests

Baldy (one of my first designs)

Sticker set

• I decided to work with digital media just to see if the clean, solid lines and colors are suitable for the contemporary theme. I personally think that some of the designs look rather 'simple' and feels as if it were missing a few elements. Though I find it useful for when I plan on making these characters/stickers move. In a way the 'simple' designs look more coherent when it is animated. 

• After looking through my initial designs, I think that I would steer away from religious symbolisms/iconography. I thought of using the Buddhist hand posture because it is a very accurate depiction of the word 'pasrah'. It hasn't been done before within the Line official stickers. I researched into sticker designs within the Line Corp. that they specifically refrain from illustrating religious concepts to avoid any offence towards specific cultures/communities. Which is true and sensible. 

• The initial designs are very figurative and straight forward to begin with. I might try something more open to interpretation but coherent enough for people to understand the message the stickers are meant to communicate.

Kenapa? Por que? Why?

Examples of 'upfixes' p.43 (Cohn N, 2013. The Visual Language
of Comics. London: Bloomsbury)

• After the feedback I received from people, I found out that the designs where I applied these 'upfixes' or morphemes are deemed to be more successful. After looking further into those lines and marks made alongside these characters, they are initially used in comics. 

• I also came to the realization that I am naive to think there might be a 'universal sign' or 'symbols'. Even as figurative as the sticker design is, it is still art. And art is generally subjective. People themselves are unique individuals with different backgrounds, culture and beliefs. Hence, when it comes to interpreting images, it would always be prone to misinterpretations. 

(Thor:Ragnarok - Grandmaster and Topaz | bonus extended scene ) 

^^ This is how I felt throughout the whole COP practical journey ^^ 

Little experiment

• I decided to put posters up of my semi-final sticker designs to find out what people think of it. I did not expect the answers at all. From the answers people written,  I would give the design a 70% success rate. 

• I received a range of answers and interpretations. There aren't any comments on the stickers relating to the feeling I am trying to convey (to accept one's fate). However, the comments that are written are still close. Most answers cover general feelings: 'I surrender!', 'speechless' or 'ugh'. I would say they may have interpret these stickers as reactions. 

• An assumption that I came up with is that, either the designs aren't coherent enough or it lacks context, hence it might be difficult to get the right feeling. Even with the more figurative sticker design (the crane), people still have different interpretations of it. 

Creating Stickers!

 The Making of BT21 by BTS x Line Friends

Tata's design

Mang's design

• The design behind Mang is based on the misconception of horses being a rather unpopular animal for a character. They wanted to make a sticker where people would come to like it. Whereas the design for Tata, they thought that people might not just want 'cute' and 'adorable' stickers. Instead they went for an approach where the characters should be more unique and weird in a way. 

• Aside from Line and KakaoTalk, they moved over to creating stickers for Facebook Messenger and the main iMessenger, knowing that these platforms now provides stickers aside from emojis. Similarly, WhatsApp is now jumping into the bandwagon of using stickers instead of strictly sticking to the usual emojis. 

• I suppose that they saw the success of the use of stickers from both Line and Kakaotalk. Not only is it successful in terms of practicality for some cultures and languages, it's starting to be widely used for the trend and hype due celebrity endorsement. But also perhaps it makes casual conversations a more enjoyable and expressive.

This Ted Talk Literally Summarised My Essay (ᇂ_Jᇂ)

• He discusses really interesting points and brings out very interesting insight into emojis and the current evolution of language. As well as its relevance to the current age of social media and the digital platform. As well as linking it over to semiotics in a way that is digestible and easy to understand

• A point he made is that language nowadays circles back to the caveman times, where we use imagery and drawings to make sense of the world. The reference he made was to the largely used emojis and emoticons in texting. He referred the 'new cave' being our screens (phone and computer screens)

• He was saying that with these signs, humans can't read it but understand by extracting feeling from it. It is an interesting view on how people obtain and process information based on visuals.

Practical Peer Review 2

Peer Review - COP Practical

• I've got a few constructive feedback from my peers about the character design for the stickers. Visually, some say that the simpler and blocks of shapes are more effective. Another suggested to look into more digital work and GIFs. I would look into moving these characters as most of the designs involve body movement/language. The playful and witty ones seems to work best. People also pointed the ones that are most 'relatable' to them to be very likeable. 

• A question from the feedback that I'd keep in mind are: "how to make pictures express hard/long things to say?" and "what is the theme of your stickers?"

• Initially, I had thought of doing a less figurative approach to creating these stickers. I was quite struggling with that idea and a few other people recommended that they preferred using these stickers that are relatable and to easily convey difficult feelings. As suggested by my peers, I need to narrow down and have a more focused idea. Or a 'root' to tie everything in since the approaches I've taken is still quite broad. Practical-wise, I need to focus on a specific feeling and continue to work from there. N e e d   t o   b e   m o r e    f o c u s e d.